Noel's Scrabble Tips

Tips for More Advanced Players
- The Endgame

The latter part of the previous section has, essentially,
focussed on an example of the "Endgame", a concept
which exists in Scrabble, just as it exists in chess.
The endgame can be as worthy of such a lengthy
discussion in itself, as the whole of the rest of the
game put together. It is best, perhaps, learned by
experience, much of which will, inevitably, be bad!
There is no part of your game that can better benefit
from self-criticism, once a game is over. If you did
not win through the endgame, then why didn’t you?
What else could you have done? An example would only
be as good as the situation presented. Many examples
would still not cover everything there is to learn.
For the sake of brevity in what, after all, is supposed
to be a fairly broadly-painted document, I will restrict
myself to outlining some of the most general aims.

Two aspects rule over the endgame. The first is that
the first player to clear his/her rack will both be
making the last scoring move of the game, and be
benefiting from the final rack adjustments, subtracting
the total score of the tiles on the other player’s rack
from that player’s final score, and adding it to his/her
own score. This may mean that it might not be an
unreasonable hope that the player who is trailing by
some 20 to 30 points, after their opponent’s move,
could make-up the difference in one, final push. The
second is that both players, if they have been
tile-tracking, will have a good idea of what the other
has on his/her rack.

Given enough time, then, most endgames will have a best
solution, whether it results in a win, or simply in not
losing by a greater margin than necessary. Unfortunately,
you will seldom have the luxury of spending a great
deal of time on the endgame. Unless the rest of your
game has gone extraordinarily easily, you will normally
have no more than 5 minutes or so to consider your
options. In such a case, then, it is probably fair to
say that you will be unable to do more than instinctively
apply the broadest principles.

Given that your objective, when approaching the endgame,
is to be the player who goes out first (there will rarely
be any other solution which gives you a better result),
you have two alternative courses, as the letters in the
bag dry up. Either you can aim to be the player who
leaves the last tile in the bag, for the other to
pick-up, or you can aim to clear as many letters from
your rack as possible, so that what you have left, plus
the tiles in the bag, which you are about to pick-up,
amount to such a small word (say, no more than 4 letters),
that you can reasonably hope to be able to play it out
on the next move. The choice is up to you. The latter
option involves more unknowns, but holding,
unquestioningly, to the former option may be severely
restricting your score on the moves leading up to the
endgame. The decision will be influenced by the
tightness of the board (are you likely to be able to
play your last tiles onto it, even if they do make a
word?), and by the letters which your tile-tracking
suggests are likely to be in the bag (will they, taken
together with what you are holding back, be likely to
make a word?). Generally, on a tight board, it might
be better to try to arrange to leave your opponent the
last tile. On an open board, the decision about whether
or not to leave your opponent the last tile will be
based on whether or not the tiles which you cannot
account for, look likely to make a bonus-word, allowing
your opponent to clear his rack in one go. Making him
pick-up that last tile, will ensure that you get one
more turn. You will have to measure the risk against
the difference in the scores, just as you did at the
end of the example in the previous section on Defensive
Play.

Note that, from the point-of-view of your opponent in
the last section, leaving you the last tile in the bag
was very important. If his last opening had involved
his playing 3 tiles, so that he cleared the bag, you
would have known whether or not he had the V, and you
would have been able to make much more certain
calculations about the consequences of any of your moves.
The point in leaving the last tile in the bag, is as
much about increasing your opponent’s uncertainty, as
it is about ensuring that you will get one more move,
even if your opponent plays a bonus.

Generally, once the threat of bonus-plays has been
discounted from the endgame situation with which you
are faced, your objective will be to clear your rack
in two moves, whilst, at the same time, trying to
prevent your opponent from doing so, before you. This
is where knowing your opponent’s tiles becomes most
important. If you have the time, you must try to
anticipate what your opponent will be trying to do.
If you can prevent one of his moves, whilst, at the
same time, playing one of your own, then you will
usually be doing yourself a big favour. Is one of
your opponent’s moves the only way in which he can get
rid of a particularly difficult tile? Usually the
options for playing the Q, in particular, but also,
just as often the C and the V, say, will be very
restricted. If you can be absolutely certain that he
can only play the difficult tile in one place, it is
almost always the right move to block that play before
doing anything-else. Conversely, if you are the one
with the difficult tile, then play it, in the first of
your moves, while you still can, if you still can.
Ideally, if you have found two moves which will clear
your rack, and you have the luxury of being able to
ignore your opponent’s plays, then try to leave
yourself more than one option for the second move.
That way, if your opponent can see what you are up to,
he will not be able to stop you.

Perhaps you can see no way of preventing your opponent
from being the one who goes out first, and you are
reduced to finding the best single move with as many
of your letters as possible. If there is no overriding
reason why you should play in a particular place, to
stop an especially good score for your opponent, then,
when assessing your best move, don't forget to make
the adjustments for the tiles that you will have left
on your rack, at the end, and include them in your
calculations. Usually it is best to look for a play
which gets your highest scoring tiles off your rack,
and onto the board. There is no point, for example,
in getting rid of 6 letters, leaving a four-point H on
the rack, if you could have rid yourself of 5 letters,
including the H, leaving 2 one-point tiles on your rack,
unless, of course the difference in the scores of the 2
moves swings the argument the other way.

More often than not, of course, especially if you are
under time-pressure, things will happen which you do
not anticipate. All other things being equal, if you
are planning to go out in two moves, and your opponent
does not appear to be able to stop you, the wise player
will still play the move that has the highest-scoring
tiles in it, first, just to be sure of not being
caught with them.